Tsume was still an outlaw, surviving on the streets, but somehow the world seemed less harsh in its new state. Humanity had been given a second chance, and Tsume would be damned if the wolves didn’t take advantage of that chance, too. The other day, when he was prowling the streets looking for some food to steal, he had found Kiba doing the same thing. They hadn’t spoken to each other, but had merely stared for a few seconds before Kiba gave him a knowing smile and walked off. Hige had shown up three weeks later, Blue by his side, also scavenging for eats, and they both smiled and nodded to Tsume. Still, Tsume had yet to see the runt.

Back when they were searching for paradise, when the world was ending, everyone had been so busy just trying to make it that no one had thought of finding mates (except for Hige, but that boy would never change). In the new world, Tsume was beginning to realize how much he missed Toboe’s sweet voice in the background. He remembered watching that kid grow up, seeing how much he cared for everyone, even those damned humans. Had something happened to the runt in this new life?

“What should I care?” Tsume grunted to himself, wrapping his arms around himself. He was sitting alone in the abandoned building where he had stayed before, curled into a ball in the corner, no longer hungry. The open window let a flood of moonlight in, which he basked in, trying to forget. The cold edges of loneliness always got under his skin in the middle of the night. He was trying not to miss Toboe, but the pup’s bright eyes were burned into his memory. If he had to live a thousand more lives, those eyes would never fade.

The new day was even grayer than the one before, and the light rain had been falling for hours upon the city. Tsume was wet and grumpy, but they had a job to pull.

“How easy is this one gonna be?” a human in ridiculously large goggles asked him.

“Shut up,” Tsume grunted, busy trying to formulate a fallback plan in his mind.

“Come on, boss!” a tall, slim human with a headband shouted. “Tell us plan B!”

“All right,” Tsume growled, spinning around to face his team. How he both loved and hated this worthless bunch of humans. He loved to dominate them, to control their behavior like they were predictable lab rats, but it was so easy. There was no challenge to the game anymore. “If I give you the signal, that means that something’s gone wrong. We split to run from any cops, and meet up in ten minutes at the main room. If everything goes right, we’ll grab our assigned goods, get the hell out without anyone noticing a thing, and meet back here.”

“Yeah!” the human runt shouted, and Tsume flinched. He wouldn’t let another runt die in this life.

“Let’s move!” Tsume shouted, and they ran through the alleys on a path to the hospital. This time, they were stealing medical supplies (which were in large quantities in the cities, but not in the rural towns) from the hospital, directly from the supply trucks. Then, they could sell them to the border towns for good money.

The plan was executed perfectly. They snuck up through an alley just alongside the hospital, and watched three huge trucks drive up. The drivers opened the backs, and then went to tell the guards that they had arrived, leaving enough time for Tsume to signal. Their pack, wearing masks so that they couldn’t be identified on the cameras, ran to the trucks, took the supplies they had been assigned to by Tsume (who’d gotten them from a man who actually does the selling to the country towns and knows what the people need), and got out before the truck drivers came back. No one knew that anything had been stolen until the hospital was taking inventory later that night while Tsume had already transferred the supplies to their man. The man had paid him half the money in cash and said he’d bring the rest later. And he would bring the rest, if he hoped to ever do business with Tsume’s gang again.

Tsume was trying to get some sleep that night for another job they were pulling the next afternoon, in broad daylight (though it would probably be raining again, it always seemed to be raining in the bubbles). He was lying on his back on the cot in the corner, hands behind his head, staring at the ceiling, just thinking, when he heard shuffling noises outside his door. He sat up and waited for the human to walk in, knowing that it was one of his men come to talk about something useless. Instead, he heard a brief snuffling, and then a few moans of pain, coming from an animal. No, not just any animal. A wolf.

“Who’s there?” Tsume shouted across the room, ready to fight. He was in wolf form, fangs bared, waiting for the intruder so that he could pounce on him. Outside, a wolf’s muzzle shoved through the crack in the door, nudged it open, and then the wolf walked in. It was a dusty red color, and Tsume recognized him immediately.

“Toboe!” Tsume gasped, losing all his will to fight and running up to the young wolf.

“You’re him,” Toboe whispered, his eyelids drooping.

“Are you hurt? Toboe!” Tsume shouted, but Toboe closed his eyes and dropped to the ground. “Toboe, wake up! Toboe!”